Richie Commey and coach off to Las Vegas

Richard Oblitey Commey is airborne on the way to the United States of America where he will fight for the first time next Friday.

Commey hopes to maintain his perfect career record (21-0, 19 KOs) against against Bahodir Mamadjonov of Uzbekistan come May 22 for the IBF Intercontinental lightweight championship.

28 year old Commey, rated number 7 by the IBF, number 14 by the WBA and number 16 by the WBC faces the sternest test of his world championship credentials against the 27 year old Mamadjonov at the D Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, Nevada.

And having been training in Ghana for the past month since posting the 21st straight win of his career in South Africa over home favourite, Thompson Mokwana at the end of March, Commey and his coach, Lawrence Carl Lokko rounded up their preparations and flew our of Accra earlier this morning on the way to the US.

Victory by the highly rated Commey who also holds the Commonwealth Lightweight title, could set him up for a possible eliminator or even a world title shot itself by the end of year but Team Commey are not getting ahead of themselves.

"Let's focus on one fight after the other, finish the task ahead of you to prove that you have been in the States now and won your fight," Coach Lokko told Allsports.com.gh when we visited their training gym in Accra last week.

"Now Richard is IBF (no.7) in the rankings in and other sanctioning bodies, it tells you the chance can come at any time but let's focus gradually and get to the top," he added.